The Sask Dispatch publishes articles about Saskatchewan on a range of topics, including provincial and municipal elections, grassroots activism, Indigenous rights, arts and culture, economic justice, ecology, gender equity, harm reduction, and more. We approach these topics from an anti-capitalist and anti-colonial perspective, often seeking to intervene in mainstream media narratives.
We welcome pitches from first-time writers, seasoned journalists, front-line activists, and anyone else with a story to tell and a desire to tell it compellingly. We ask that you research your topic thoroughly, back up your expressed opinions with verifiable facts and persuasive arguments, interview a range of relevant sources as the topic requires, and hold on to relevant documentation for fact-checking purposes. We explore complex issues in everyday language — please write for a progressive, non-specialist Saskatchewan audience that may not necessarily share your assumptions or opinions.
How to pitch
Unsolicited submissions are welcome, but we encourage you to send us a pitch first. Your pitch should be between 1-3 paragraphs, and should tell us what ground your article will cover, what interviews or examples you plan to include, and why you’re the right person to write this article. Please include an estimated word count, and a writing sample.
We publish articles in a range of styles, including non-fiction articles, in-depth news stories, investigative journalism, personal essays, interviews, op-eds, and photo essays. Please keep in mind the key elements of successful articles. Great articles:
- Have a strong narrative voice and a point of view (and tell a story).
- Explore and work through the tensions in the subject matter.
- Show, don’t tell. Arguments are supported with compelling evidence, not diatribe.
- Begin with a compelling anecdote, event, or question (an opening hook).
- Are driven by characters and told through the eyes of those directly affected (for most research-based and investigative articles, good interviews and quotations are absolutely essential).
Send your pitches/submissions to amielle [at] briarpatchmagazine.com. We aim to reply to every pitch – including those we reject – but because of time constraints, this isn’t always possible. If you don’t hear back from us within three weeks, please assume that we won’t be accepting your pitch. Feel free to pitch us again in the future.
If your work is accepted for publication, you can expect to participate in an intensive, collaborative editing process until consensus is reached between yourself and the editor on a final draft. On average, be prepared to take your submission through two or three rewrites over the course of a month. Your article will be published online and, if space permits, in our bimonthly print insert.
Our standard rates of pay for articles are as follows:
- $100 – Profiles, short essays, and reviews (generally <1,000 words)
- $200 – Feature stories (generally 1,000-1,500 words), photo essays
- $300 – Research-based articles and investigative reportage with extensive primary research (generally 1,500-2,000 words)